Deep Thought

Davy Johnson said that he’d rather forfeit the WBC than play someone out of position at catcher, fearing that such a thing risks injury. Why then did he have no problem playing my team’s catcher out of position in left field? Yes, I will grant that it’s easier to get hurt catching than it is playing left, but radically out of position is radically out of position, no?

Atlanta has already lost Chipper Jones for some amount of time, and given his history, he’ll be nagged all year with this injury. If McCann had hurt himself too, there wouldn’t be much point to the Braves’ season, now, would there?

One article I read stated that experienced OF Mark DeRosa lent McCann the glove, DeRosa was playing 3B. What makes even less sense about the whole thing is that DeRosa could have moved to LF Youk to 3B and McCann to 1B just as easily as Johnson putting McCann in LF. DeRosa played plenty of LF and Youkilis spent at least a dozen games last season at 3B. McCann then would have only had to man 1B, the least difficult transition for a catcher (not named Mike Piazza) to make.

Johnson’s managing in the WBC has been really horrible. This incident is only one example. Leaving Peavy in to hit a pitch count while he got shelled was farcical. Team USA has given credence to all the voices that say that this whole tournament is a misguided, boring spectacle made to profit MLB at the expense of the rest of the season.